1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system manufacture, and more particularly to a system and method for manufacture of information handling systems with selective Option ROM executions.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems are built from a variety of components and, once assembled, loaded with different types of applications. Typically, the components communicate with each other through an operating system that uses drivers adapted for particular components. On power-up of the information handling system, the system firmware, such as the basic input/output system (BIOS), initiates boot with a bootable device, typically the hard disc drive, to run the operating system and selected applications. Bootable devices are identified by the BIOS by reading a bootable device class code from the device mass media controllers and include SCSI, IDE, RAID, NIC, Fibre Channel and Infiniband devices. As the BIOS scans components at boot initiation, it loads Optional ROM code, known as Option ROM, into memory from the bootable devices for execution during boot. Generally, information handling systems boot to a hard disc drive which stores the operating system, however, other drives may supercede the hard disc drive, such as if a bootable CD-ROM disc is found by the BIOS during its scan.
During initial manufacture, information handling systems typically have software deployed to components through a network connection after initial boot through a PXE client or portable media, such as a floppy or USB key. In a PXE boot, the network interface card boots to a network location to download applications, such as an operating system image. After the PXE boot, the information handling system typically performs a number of reboots in a build process that performs tests, flashes firmware such as the BIOS, and otherwise configures the applications to run with the components of the information handling system. One difficulty with a factory build process that involves a number of reboots is that each reboot is time consuming. The amount of time for a boot generally depends on the number and type of components loaded on the information handling system and is sometimes reduced by altering the boot process, such as disabling memory testing. The execution of Option ROM during each boot tends to increase boot time, especially where an information handling system has a number of bootable devices. For instance, onboard and plug-in PCI cards add substantial time to each boot for the execution of Option ROM present in the card and in the BIOS for support detected cards. When PCI cards support RAID with multiple devices the time for each boot can be up to three to four minutes. Even a basic SCSI card can add thirty seconds to a minute to boot time if drives are connected. Over the course of building a number of information handling systems, these long boot times have a substantial impact on factory output even though the components associated with executed Option ROM are often not used in a particular boot sequence.